Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday promised he would stop a Kurd-led border force being created by the US, and said final preparations were under way to invade the Kurdish canton of Afrin, as tensions rose once again between the ostensible allies over Syria.

His speech in Ankara came a day after the US announced it would form a 30,000-strong border force led by the Kurdish YPG militia – a group Turkey regards as terrorist and linked to the PKK organisation in Turkey.

A country we call an ally is insisting on forming a terror army on our border. Our mission is to strangle it before it’s even born.”

– Recep Tayyip Erdogan

“A country we call an ally is insisting on forming a terror army on our border,” said Erdogan. “What can that terror army target but Turkey? Our mission is to strangle it before it’s even born.”

“This is what we have to say to all our allies: don’t get in between us and terrorist organisations, or we will not be responsible for the unwanted consequences,” Erdogan said.

 

 

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Featured image courtesy of AP